In Cleveland, OH, on Saturday night, Tears for Fears and Hall & Oates, two legendary groups from the 80s, came to rock the Quicken Loans Arena as part of their North American arena tour.

Joined by 30-year-old singer/songwriter Allen Stone, the legendary groups performed to the gigantic crowd in the arena, playing all of their major hits. It felt like a throwback to the 80s that night.

Tears for Fears formed in the UK in 1981 and gained major international attention with the release of their second album Songs from the Big Chair, which featured hit singles “Shout”, “Mother’s Talk”, and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, which has been covered by many artists like Ninja Sex Party, Glass Cloud, and Lorde. The duo composed of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith then had a fall out in 1991 but got back together in 2000, releasing their latest album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending in 2004. The group has been working on a follow-up since 2013.

Daryl Hall and John Oates, also known as Hall & Oates, formed in Philadelphia in 1970 and gained major popularity in the late 70s through the mid-80s with their fusion of rock and roll, blue-eyed soul, and R&B. They are mostly known for their songs “Rich Girl”, “Private Eyes”, “Out of Touch”, “Maneater”, and “You Make My Dreams”. They are the third best-selling music duo of all time, selling around 40 million records throughout their career. In 2007, Daryl Hall started a monthly web series called Live From Daryl’s House, which has him jamming with bands and artists such as Smokey Robinson, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, Train, Jason Mraz, Darius Rucker, Cheap Trick, Ben Folds, Elle King, and others. The duo received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016 for their work in the music industry and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 along with Nirvana, KISS, and Peter Gabriel.

After Allen Stone performed his three song set, Tears for Fears took the stage to Lorde’s version of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, which then the band started to play as their opening number, causing the crowd to go wild. The band played several of their greatest hits over a span of 75 minutes such as “Advice for the Young at Heart”, “Change”, “Memories Fade”, “Secret World” (which featured a small segment of Wings’ “Let ‘Em In”,) “Sowing the Seeds of Love”, “Break it Down Again”, and many other classic hits. The duo (along with a touring drummer, keyboardist, and backup vocalist) later broke out into a performance of the Radiohead classic “Creep”, wowing the crowd. They also played other songs from their seventeen year long career, such as “Break it Down Again”, “Pale Shelter”, and “Change”. They performed one encore which included one of their most popular songs “Shout”.

After this, Hall & Oates took the stage to the sound of the loud crowd cheering. Taken back by the excited crowd, Daryl Hall simply told the crowd, “This is fucking awesome.” Hall kept the crowd cheering, saying “There’s no bullshitting that [Clevelanders] just get it.”

The duo, along with their backup band, opened with “Family Man”, a song originally performed by Mike Oldfield which the band made more popular. The group played a killer show which lasted about 100 minutes, featuring classic songs like “Out of Touch”, “ I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do”, “Say it Isn’t So”, “Maneater”, “Sara Smile”, “One on One”, and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”, a song originally performed by the Righteous Brothers which Hall introduced before playing the song as “one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll songs of all time.” Hall & Oates played an encore which contained “Rich Girl”, “Kiss on My List”, “Private Eyes”, and “You Make My Dreams”.

The entire show was nothing but a field trip back to the 80s. Both Tears for Fears and Hall & Oates took the entire arena on a wild ride, entertaining the crowd from beginning to end. While Stone was unable to keep the audience engaged with him, the two headliners were able to keep the party going.

The next date of their North American tour will be on Wednesday, June 7 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL.

Tears for Fears will be in the western New York area on Wednesday, June 14 at Artpark in Lewiston.

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